Llansteffan Castle

A castle in Carmarthenshire, Wales, built upon an Iron Age promontory fort first fortified around 600 BC with a double bank and ditch across the headland. The Normans constructed the stone castle after 1100 to control the strategically vital River Tywi estuary crossing. The late 12th-century rough stone walls were augmented by a massive twin-towered gatehouse built around 1280. The original Iron Age earthworks remain visible and were incorporated into the medieval defenses, demonstrating continuous military use of this commanding hilltop position over two millennia.